Recent recognition of the growing body of research conerning geographic variations in the utilization of health care services and the impact this has on cost and quality of care has stimulated strong interest in this phenomenon among medical practitioners as well as policy-makers and consumers of care. Yet little has been done to educate practicing physicians directly about the methodology and findings of population-based small area utilization analysis and to guide them toward effective action. The Dartmouth Medical School requests $15,440 in partial support of a Research Development Conference to be conducted in association with the American Medical Association, from March 17-19, 1986, at the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H. The conference will assemble 50 national leaders in the medical community for an intensive inquiry into small area analysis: the program will give equal emphasis to theoretical issues, as interpreted by Drs. John E. Wennberg and Philip Caper, and applications in the form of physician education that seeks to improve the efficiency of individual medical practice and achieve financial savings that do not compromise the quality of patient care. We expect the participants, selected by the AMA because they are influential clinicians and practitioners, to act subsequently as catalysts through state medical societies and specialty-specific study groups for the development of education/action programs that incorporate information from small area utilization analysis, stimulate review of medical practice patterns, and achieve behavioral change.